No Place Like...

Wow, it's good to be home. On Saturday, Josh M., Nate and I went up to KC for Nate's tryout for the KC Wizards (soccer). I thought he played pretty well, but he didn't get a callback. Of course there were a lot of pro-level players out there, so it gave him a chance to get in some pretty intense practice.

The globality of it was a little surreal. Americans only made up about have the group, and at any given time during a game you could hear about 3 different languages being hollered. But for these guys, its all the same game. A dude from Guatemala explained it to us in his broken English, "You keek te ball. If you can't keek it, you pass it."
Fair enough.

We had to wait until 8 that night to find out if Nate was going to the second round, so we proceeded to hang out in Independence, MO for the rest of the day. Mainly hung at the mall and tried to not pick up any gay guys. Easier said than done.

The snow was beautiful, but slowed the drive time down. We didn't get back until almost 2 and crashed at Nate's. My cellie had died so I didn't have either phone or internet access. I suffered some mild withdrawal symptoms, but have recovered sufficiently.
///
Today in church, Pastor Baker was preaching on the rich man and Lazarus. It got me wondering again. I mean, by virtue of being an American and having a car, I am much wealthier than the rest of the world. And yet I pretty much do nothing but spend my excess wealth on coffee and muffins....
//
Cory drove past me a few moments ago as I was headed Home.
I guess he's headed to KC for something work related. I probably won't see him until tomorrow night. Kind of ironic.
It's good to be back, though. "yawn"
/
I wanna set the world on fire
Until it's burning bright for you.
It's everything that I desire
Can I be the one you use? - Britt Nicole

"These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;" Acts 17:6b

Get Sweatin

For those of you wanting to get muddy:

The local triathlon club is holding an off-road Duathlon ou at Lil Sac where Aaron and I raced a month or so ago. (Seems longer ago than that) At any rate, this will be a timed raced through the woods, on a bike and on foot. If you're interested, let me know. I can probably round up a couple of bikes, or we can rent them from the shop for $60 each. (Wanna' ride a $2300 bike? They're pretty cool). You've got time to train. I imagine the course will be pretty short. Should only take like an hour to complete.

March 29th. Pencil it in. Lemme know.

....
It's been 'career week' for me. A lot of prayin'. A lot of wishing I could read the last chapter of my life. The one where I'm rocking on the porch at sunset with the pretty lady and a heritage of Godly kids.

And all that hind-sight.
Of course, that'd prolly spoil the fun.

And everyone I know wants to go there too,
But when I ask them how to do it they seem so confused.
Do I turn to the left?
Do I turn to the right?
When I turn to the world they gave me this advice:

They said boy you just follow your heart
But my heart just led me into my chest

They said follow your nose
But the direction changed every time I went and turned my head

And they said boy you just follow your dreams
But my dreams were only misty notions

But the Father of hearts and the Maker of noses
And the Giver of dreams He's the One I have chosen

And I will follow Him
- Rich Mullins

I'm Happy

...And I want to post happy lyrics, but that means that I gotta' blog....
//
Ah, team Discovery. The former team of Lance Armstrong.
They had this dude on there named Hincapie. He's a real worker. I mean he was right by Armstrong's side during every tour. Cool, huh? Seven years. Helpin' the big dog win.

So this year at the USPRO National championship in his home state, he was told to win it (these things are planned before every race so the team knows who to work for). Watch the footage sometime. Right when Hincapie stands up to break away, his teammate, Levi Leipheimer attacks. The gentleman that he is, Hincapie sat back down and let his teammate win.

Supposedly Levi's selfish move was just so he could land a better contract.

It worked. Astana - a team that got kicked out of both of the last two Tour de France's for doping -hired Levi, the Disco team leader, Johann Bruyneel, and the winner of last year's Tour de France in a bid to rebuild a clean, winning team.

Hincapie got hired by T-Mobile, which then folded, leaving him with a temporary team called Team High Road.

But the last chapter is always the happiest. This last week, the organizers of the two largest bike races - the Tour de France and the Vuelta Espana have banned Astana from racing for one year.

So now Levi can only sit there and seethe from the sidelines during both races. I love it. Bwhahaha!
>>
Aight, here's my fun. Endure!

What listen to when I'm down. It always makes me smile. I'm one of the luckiest kids out there.

But I know I'm a lucky man
God's given me a pretty fair hand
Got a house and a piece of land
a few dollars in a coffee can
My old truck's still running good
My ticker's tickin' like they say it should
I got supper in the oven, good woman's loving
And one more day to be my little kid's dad

Lord knows I'm a lucky man -Montgomery Gentry

And one of my favorite songs from Rocky IV. My pick-me-up for when life seems tough and I wanna throw in the towel and become a regular ho-hum human. Or complacent Christian.

We're not indestructible,
Baby better get that straight.
I think it's unbelievable,
How you give into the hands of fate.
Some things are worth fighting for,
some feelings never die.
I'm not asking for another chance,
I just wanna know why-

(chorus)
There's no easy way out,
There's no shortcut home.
There's no easy way out,
Giving in can't be wrong.

I don't wanna pacify you,
I don't wanna drag you down.
But I'm Feeling like a prisoner,
Like a stranger in a no-name town.
I see all the angry faces,
Afraid that could be you and me.
Talking about what might have been,
Thinking about what it used to be.
(and my favorite verse. I don't wanna' look back on life and wonder where it went:)
Baby, Baby we can shed this skin,
We can know how we feel inside.
Instead of going down an endless road,
Not knowing if we're dead or alive.
Some things are worth fighting for,
some feelings never die.
I'm not asking for another chance,
I just wanna know why-
- Survivor